Tel Aviv-Jaffa

As one of our youngest schools, Hand in Hand's Jaffa school was built by a shared community Jewish and Arab adults who were looking to create shared education in Jaffa. Together they gained municipal approval for a Hand in Hand kindergarten for 35 children in September 2013. Since then, the school has grown to 233 children in 2016-17 with many more families on the waiting list. The school includes classes through the second grade, which are integrated into an existing Hebrew-language track school in Jaffa, and community members are still working towards creating an independent Hand in Hand school in the years to come.

In contrast to some other “mixed cities” in Israel, residents are truly integrated in Jaffa. It’s not uncommon to find Christians, Muslims and Jews living together in the same apartment building and sharing neighborly relations. The Jaffa bilingual school responds to the needs of this diverse city and the community of families and supporters who have been working together to reach this goal.

The school is located in a building provided by the Tel Aviv-Jaffa municipality, and is jointly operated and supported by Hand in Hand, the municipality and the Ministry of Education.